Straightforward Statistics

Understanding the Tools of Research

Glenn Geher and Sara Hall

Description

Straightforward Statistics: Understanding the Tools of Research is a clear and direct introduction to statistics for the social, behavioral, and life sciences. Based on the author's extensive experience teaching undergraduate statistics, this book provides a narrative presentation of the core principles that provide the foundation for modern-day statistics. With step-by-step guidance on the nuts and bolts of computing these statistics, the book includes detailed tutorials how to use state-of-the-art software, SPSS, to compute the basic statistics employed in modern academic and applied research. Across 13 succinct chapters, this text presents statistics using a conceptual approach along with information on the relevance of the different tools in different contexts
and summaries of current research examples.

Students should find this book easy useful and engaging in its presentation while instructors should find it detailed, comprehensive, accessible, and helpful in complementing a basic course in statistics.

Straightforward Statistics

Understanding the Tools of Research

Glenn Geher and Sara Hall

Table of Contents

Preface

1: Why Do I Need to Learn Statistics?- Examples of statistics in the real world- The nature of findings and facts in the behavioral sciences- Descriptive and Inferential Statistics- A conceptual approach to teaching and learning statistics- What you should get out of this class

6. The Basic Elements of Hypothesis Testing- Probability- The normal distribution- Estimating likelihood of outcomes- A real research example- Summary

7. Introduction to Hypothesis Testing- Basic rationale underlying hypothesis testing- What is meant by statistical significance?- The five steps of hypothesis testing:- Stating the null and research hypotheses- Delineating the nature of the comparison distribution - Determining alpha (by defining a part of
the comparison distribution is highly unlikely)- Comparing a sample from the special population with the comparison distribution- Commenting on the null hypothesis- A real research example- Summary

8. Hypothesis Testing if N > 1- The basic steps of hypothesis testing always remain the same- The comparison distribution needed for comparing a sample mean: The distribution of means- Hypothesis testing using the distribution of means- Confidence intervals- A real research example- Summary

9. Statistical Power - Defining Power (p(rejecting the null hypothesis when the research hypothesis is true) and Beta (p(Type-II error))- How N, population-level standard deviation, and effect size affect power- Computing
power- How power affects real research- A real research example- Summary

10. t-tests (One-Sample and Within-Groups)- How a t-test differs from a Z-test- The nature of the t-distribution (and why it varies as it does)- Computing a one-sample t-test- Computing a repeated-measures t-test- A real research example- Summary

12. Analysis of Variance- Basic reasoning of F as a ratio between effect and error variance- Concepts underlying a one-way ANOVA- Computing a one-way ANOVA- Factorial ANOVA- What results
from an ANOVA can and cannot tell you- Post-hoc tests- A real research example- Summary

Appendix F:
Using SPSS to Compute Basic Statistics- Benefits of SPSS- Different kinds of SPSS files- Entering data with SPSS- Computing frequency distributions with SPSS- Describing variables with SPSS- Using SPSS to examine correlations- Using SPSS for a repeated-measures test- Using SPSS for a between-groups test- Using SPSS for a one-way ANOVA

Glossary

Answers to Set B Homework Problems

References Index

Straightforward Statistics

Understanding the Tools of Research

Glenn Geher and Sara Hall

Author Information

Glenn Geher is Professor and Chair of Psychology at the State University of New York at New Paltz, where he has taught Statistics and various other courses related to psychology and evolution since 2000. He also is the founding director of New Paltz's Evolutionary Studies Program, which has been awarded thousands of dollars from the National Science Foundation to help advance evolution's place in higher education. He has over 60 publications including several books and articles on various topics related to evolution and social psychology. His work has been covered in several media outlets including the New York Times, Chronicle of Higher Education, Redbook, and Cosmopolitan. He lives with his wife Kathy and two children, Megan and Andrew, in rural upstate New York.

Sara Hall has earned degrees in both Psychology and Criminology. She lives in Oregon with her husband, Benjamin, and their four children, Jackson, Stella, Susanna, and Sailor.

Contributors:

N/A

Straightforward Statistics

Understanding the Tools of Research

Glenn Geher and Sara Hall

Reviews and Awards

"The book is very readable for students that may not be comfortable with a large number of formulas. Explanations are extensively textual in form and diagrams are used where needed. If you are teaching a service course for students in the social, behavioral or life sciences and don't want to use a standard basic statistics book, this is one that will work for you and your students." --Charles Ashbacher, Mathematical Association of America Reviews